Written By NAFSO on Friday, July 25, 2008 | 4:45:00 PM

According to the invitation of Asian Civil Society group, the admin secretary of NAFSO Mrs. Geetha Luckmini Fernando Represented the Climate Justice workshop held in Bangkok on 16 July 2008.

These programmes consist of around 170 activists from several countries representing North America, Europe, Latin America, and Africa. This was a very important event in the present situation, in which we are being affected by most vulnerable crisis in the world like Global Warming, Food Crisis and Climate Change and specially this is very important for us because we are working with these issues according to the Administrative Secretary Mrs. Geetha Luckmini.

Here is the issued press release elated this programme.

PRESS RELEASE

BANGKOK (July 16) – Over 170 activists who gathered in Bangkok over the weekend harshly criticized governments and corporations for their failure to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. They called for "climate justice" and a "fundamental departure from the current global order" to solve the climate crisis. Conference participants included fishers and farmers, forest and indigenous peoples, women, youth, workers and non-government activists from 31 countries.

"By climate justice," participants asserted in a conference document, "we mean that the burden of adjustment to the climate crisis must be borne by those who have created it, and not by those who have been least responsible."

The conference signalled the growing voice of social movements and civil society groups in Asia on the issue of climate change.

Throughout the three-day conference, participants repeatedly expressed frustration at how governments and corporations, who have thus far dominated the climate discussion, have failed to address the root causes of planet-threatening climate change.

After over 30 workshops and plenary debates, participants reached consensus on their opposition to carbon trading and "offset" schemes, such as the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Development (REDD) program, which allow polluters to buy their way out of reducing emissions.

As a solution, participants insisted that governments must confront the problem of overconsumption, both in developed countries as well as among elites in poorer countries.

The conference heard that while industrialized countries have been responsible for about 90% of historical greenhouse gas emissions, 99% of the risks posed climate change are being borne by people from developing countries.

"Dealing with the climate crisis inevitably involves a fundamental departure from the current global order, and a comprehensive transformation of social, economic, political and cultural relations at the local, national, and global level," participants concluded.

The conference was hosted by Focus on the Global South, a policy and advocacy group housed at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University, together with 24 other co-organizers from around the world. The majority of participants came from Asian countries, but there were also representatives from North America, Europe, Latin America, and Africa.